• fall season,  leaves,  Plants,  seasons

    Telling on Myself

    September 9, 2023

    I’m telling on myself. Thursday morning I took a few images at Pineridge Natural Area of the predawn light. I did not shoot many images, making 7 compositions, placing the horizon in the various locations in the frame. When I loaded them on the computer at home they were all underexposed. I then discovered I had set the camera in manual mode yesterday and never checked the exposure. I made a critical assumption the camera would take care of everything, all I had to do was make the composition. Wrong. Way too much dependance on the camera and not checking my settings!

    A lot of seasonal changes are taking place here in Colorado. As the nights get longer and there’s less sunlight, leaves stop making chlorophyll, losing their green colors, some change to yellow, orange, red, brown and gray. These leaves will freeze in winter, so the trees are letting go, allowing them to decompose and restock the soil with nutrients for next spring. I love this time of the year and this process of dying to renew life.

    I attended my 55th class reunion dinner last night and enjoyed catching up with them. One facet of reunions is finding out more have died than I knew about. Just the same we get to reminisce about our youth. I’m leaving a few minutes to attend today’s picnic. I am finding it interesting how little I really knew about my classmates and the erroneous assumptions I had about them in high school. And that is also true of how they perceived me. Many thought they didn’t fit in. Just like me! Fascinating to me.

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  • clouds,  fountain pens,  grass,  horizons,  journal,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  Plants,  quotes,  writing/reading

    Who I’m Becoming

    September 7, 2023

    … the truth is that we simply don’t know — we don’t know where life ultimately leads, we don’t know what we want or what to want, and we don’t really know ourselves. 

    Maria Popova

    I’ve mentioned before my belief of how little I think I think I know. Yet there are times when some sense of knowing does rise within me. This knowing is not about having an answer or solution to a problem. It’s a knowing that somehow changes my perspective on life, this world, people, and myself. I find this knowing to be one of the adventures in life, a place of growth. I am slowly learning small bits of who I’m not and who I’m becoming.

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  • leaves,  Plants,  quotes

    In the spotlight

    September 5, 2023

    Most of the things that we notice, we notice in passing, on our way to something else; then, every so often, something gives us reason to pause. Something catches our eye or draws our attention, and we’re drawn for a moment to ponder or to reflect on that which awakened us in this way. 

    James Finley

    It’s a cool morning, a feeling of fall. The leaves are changing colors and the trees are releasing these leaves to move onto their next stage of life. You can’t help but notice and pause as the changes take place. As a dude with a camera I’m not sure I always pause to ponder and reflect but gravitate to checking out the light and composition. 😊 However, I like to think that’s changing.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  panorama,  Pineridge Natural Area,  quotes,  sunrises,  Thomas Berry

    It’s Happening Now

    September 4, 2023

    The greatest of human discoveries in the future will be the discovery of human intimacy with all those other modes of being that live with us on this planet, inspire our art and literature, reveal that numinous world whence all things come into being, and with which we exchange the very substance of life.

    Thomas Berry

    A host of thoughts can run through my head while standing before this pre-dawn scene as I worked at capturing the image. This image is a panorama of 7 images using Lightroom Classic. I wanted the whole cloud bank in the image and my 16mm lens wasn’t wide enough so I decided to try a panorama. It works on this blog but not for printing purposes. When I came home and saw this panoramic image on my monitor my thoughts shifted from the craft of the image to the scene itself. It’s easy to look at this open field, even to the distant horizon, and see it as something separate from me. I’m here, it’s there. But that’s just not true. There is a multitude of ecosystems comprising this image and the world. Maybe that’s what makes this scene so appealing and beautiful to me. Because as Berry suggests there are other modes of being: birds of all sorts, insects, animals, the plants and of course, humans. For me the future of discovery Berry is talking about is happening now.

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  • horizons,  landscape,  mountains,  quotes,  sunsets

    Holiness of the Present Moment

    September 3, 2023
    Colorado Front Range Sunset – 2011

    A contemplative practice is any act, habitually entered into with your whole heart, as a way of awakening, deepening, and sustaining a contemplative experience of the inherent holiness of the present moment.

    James Finley

    His quote opens up a lot of possibilities in living a spiritual journey but also apply to photography.  I have a daily contemplative practice of prayer and meditation. When I skip them, cut them short, my day is off. I miss things, out of sorts, quick to anger, restless, wandering in my thoughts, judgemental and more. My daily contemplative practice keeps me centered in living life, what I call the present moment. 

    In my photography his definition of a contemplative practice does two things for me. One is that I gain experience in my craft, where practice helps me become more adept at using my gear. Secondly, it provides me the opportunity to be in the present moment where I’m able to see the dragonfly, or the baby cottontail hiding under a bush, or hear the chickadee sing, or notice the light beam striking a rose or the orange sunset beaming light over the Front Range. I believe a contemplative practice allows me to receive the gifts of nature for my photography as well as in my spiritual journey. I like being in the holiness of the present moment. Now coffee!

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  • landscape,  mountains,  quotes

    Keep Your Humor

    September 2, 2023

    Humor has bailed me out of more tight situations than I can think of. If you go with your instincts and keep your humor, creativity follows. With luck, success comes, too.

    Jimmy Buffett

    I know it’s not Key West but for me a mountain lake with sailboats comes close. I’m off to meet Eric for coffee and conversation. Enjoy your Saturday!

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  • clouds,  horizons,  landscape,  quotes

    Lovely Clouds

    September 1, 2023

    Get a good pair of walking shoes and… fall in love.

    Abbas Attar

    Kyger Open Space is an approximately 150-acre parcel west of downtown Windsor. The property contains a water storage reservoir and associated pump infrastructure, open fields, drainages and wetlands, and paved and unpaved trails. These trails are flat and easy to walk, my kind of trails. 😁 And, it’s a good location for cloud photos!

    I’m off to the tennis courts to practice taking action photos, then get in some reading and journaling. Meet a friend for lunch later today. Have a great Friday!

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